Bream at Hoe Mill

By Tony Runnalls

I have never really been one for catching bream - so while I was fishing at Hoe Mill on the River Chelmer I was pleasantly surprised when I started picking off the odd one or two old warriors whilst feeder fishing for the roach. So as time went by I started thinking about targeting them and came up with a plan to try and get a big bag of old warrior bream.

The first thing I did was to spend a day looking for features under the water but access to the far bank is prohibited, no boats are allowed in the weir pool and the banks either side of the platform are unfishable without some major deforestation of all the brambles and thick undergrowth. There’s one good thing about it being so inaccessible from all sides, if you get there early enough you get the whole weir pool to yourself and on a free ticket.

On the far bank I have found a deep glide that runs to about 14 foot and at the end is some serious snags in the form of fallen willow trees and old wooden moorings.

In order to try and avoid small silver fish I decided to pre-bait with 10mm Nash Monster Pursuit Boilie Pellets and lumps of paste along with these I used Crazy Bait Black Ground Bait and Small Micro Halibut Pellets in the mix.

I spent the next three weeks putting it in every other day, starting with half a kilo a time, first thing in the morning before I go to work and a kilo on Sunday nights when it’s quite.

When we arrived on Sunday night just before dark the place just screamed fish, there were fish rising all over the pool and a big bream broke the surface directly over the pre-baited swim on the right just before the snags - in the deepest part of the swim and I am sure it waved at me as it went down looking for food.

We settled in and made ourselves comfortable for the night making sure we had every thing to hand, checked all our lighting and put everything away we didn’t need under an umbrella at the end of the platform to reduce the risk of tripping over during the night.

I started by loading the swim out with 20 feeders full of ground bait and broken boilie pellets and Darren did the same, I figure that they are used to having a bit of bait to graze over and also it gave me the opportunity to get my eye in and clip up so I could hit the mark all night without the risk of hitting the far bank.

I used 8lb braid to a heavy cage feeder on a loop with 18 inch 6lb fluorocarbon hooklengths and presenting the boilies on hair-rigs.

Fish came almost immediately and the fish were moving from my swim to Darren’s, we both caught steadily up till about 2am when it died off, the evening had produced 16 bream all over 4lb and Darren had a couple of good eels on meat. All of the bites were exactly the same - a gentle nod and then slack line, on picking up the rod and winding down all the fish kited to the left and went into the flow and came to the net relatively easy, but at about 11pm my rod was nearly ripped from the rest and what I am assuming to be a very big carp started stripping line from my reel and headed to the right, straight into the flow and towards a big island of reeds with a channel round the back of it. I couldn’t do a thing and with my rod locked up and my finger on the spool I tried and failed to turn it, and it got to the reeds first - I lost the fish, my feeder and about 15 metres of braid after it all went solid and I pulled for the break.

Darren stayed put in the swim and I went to the car, put the seats down and had some kip, I woke up just as it was getting light and went back to the swim were Darren was huddled up in a ball looking very cold, now I know some of you will think I am out of order for leaving Darren on the bank, but rest assured that if you had been fishing with him you will know that he can sleep on a fairground ride and could snore for the England if it was an Olympic sport.

With the swim rested we decided that we would load out some more bait and have a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich, we spotted some fry being harassed near the reeds and Darren was on it while I was cooking, he managed to get a 14lb pike on his first cast and a small jack before we had finished our breakfast.

We had a little sort out and started fishing for the bream again, after about 20 minutes Darren had the first fish and it started the ball rolling with fish coming to the net all day with a lull in action from about 11 to 3. In total we had 37 bream over 4lb, 11 of them being over the 7lb mark and one over 10lb. On the float rods we had quality roach and the odd decent chub all day.

This is a first class venue but it’s just a shame that every time we go there we end up bringing home more rubbish than we take, now I could go on about it, but you know who you are, just don’t do it in front of me.

There are 14 locks and weirs along the Chelmer and they all hold good heads of fish, I have heard rumours of barbel and rest assured if they're in there I will find them, and if I find them - I will have a good go at catching them!

We are going down to Cornwall in a couple of weeks to fish from the rocks along the coast, it's become a bit of a pilgrimage over the last couple of years for me and Darren - so join me next time for a sea fishing adventure

Good Fishing to you all

Tony Runnalls